In Mourning

For Fall.  Oh how I will miss it.  I am not ready for this dreary, rainy, cold weather.  We have had such lovely, warm sunshine for almost two months.  It almost felt like we got to extend summer fun for just a little bit.  Mother Nature was so good to us, so I really can't complain, but I am never ready to let it go.  I love the leaves and the sun with cool breezes.  But alas, we must say goodbye.  Luckily we did get to get out and enjoy the beauty of the earth during this most wonderful season...

Hiking up Santaquin Canyon with Grandma & Grandpa while Dad was gone hunting:

Hiking up Diamond Fork WITH Daddy:

 

Goodbye Autumn.  We grieve and await your return.  :(

Still Growing Strong

Last week this is what my garden looked like:

And it was still producing:

And now, what to do with ALL this:

Don't get me wrong, I do LOVE having a garden, but I think I need to work on a little variety next year.  We have been eating squash and zucchini way too much lately.  And since I'm the only one who eats tomatoes, that is getting old too.  (Although I did find a really yummy zucchini soup recipe that I have made several times and even my kids eat it.)  We did have ONE cantaloupe that I babied all summer, and then it got plucked by one un-named two year old and left on the lawn too long. :(

But I am already excited for next year - any tips for not having my beans and peas die?  Oh, and I think I will plant lots of pumpkins.  Those are fun.

The end of a tradition?

So ever since Corbin was ONE, we have been going to this place called HEE HAWS every fall. It is your typical fall festival/pumpkin gathering type place and I have always thought it to be a fun family outing until . . . (a) for the second year in a row, I felt sorry for the penned up animals (and I don't even like animals that much) and (b) all of my kids were wheezing, hacking and having crappy allergies all night long after. So that night I am thinking - why would I take my poor asthmatic/allergic-to-everything kids to a place with hay and dust and animals? Who knows. But I will probably forget by next year and take them again anyway. And we did have a dang good time despite it all.

I'm a sucker for free fun

Yes, yet another fun filled day of activities for all the family to enjoy. Last Saturday I took the boys to Spanish Fork's Annual Harvest Moon Hurrah. I love free stuff! I don't know why, but I can't NOT go. How can I pass it up if it gets us out of the house and is free? I was reletively impressed with this one - not too crowded, lots of crafts and fun things to do, and not alot of junk given out. And of course, you did have to pay for food, but everything was, as advertised, less than $3. None of this $4 for a hotdog. So we all got to pick what we wanted for dinner and kept it under $10. Wahoo! If I haven't enticed you yet to try it next year, think about your kids and . . . leaf rubbings, apple stampers, balloon animals, mini caramel apples, sunflower mosaics, foam fall bracelets, leaf crowns, mural painting, ring toss, football throw, hay rides (complete with live fiddlers) . . . and all of it for free! They also had dancers, singers, musicians, etc going the whole time. That night, Peter Brienholt was performing. But since I'm not a fan of Peter, nor am I a fan of doing anything with my kids when they could be in bed asleep, we opted out of that one. But a nice shaved ice on the walk home made it a perfect day (well, as close as it can be without Daddy there too.)

No pictures, because my camera was dead. So you get another video . . .

How Sweet It Is

I have been saving this post because I was planning to think of some really creative and cool analogy about how life is like picking berries or something.

But every time I sit down to do a post, it is generally late and dark and close to my bedtime, so my brain quits functioning on any creative level.
So this is it: Life is sweet and so are fresh-picked raspberries, you should take some time to enjoy both.

An evening spent outdoors, 3 happy kids, only $10 of raspberries turned into 9 jars of jam and plenty left to eat and share with friends . . . Life truly is sweet.

a little fall fun

Since my brother Mason was here, and we really needed to get out of the house, and Russ was home, and it was fairly nice weather . . . we decided to go to Hee Haws (it's one of those farm fall fest fun things - you know).